*Photographs of St. Luke Archbishop of Simferopol [http://www.rel.gr/photo/thumbnails.php?album=59]

*Dr. Alexander Roman. [http://www.ukrainian-orthodoxy.org/saints/saints_new/list.htm Saints of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church: New Martyrs and Confessors of the Soviet Yoke]. (''List of glorified Ukrainian Orthodox New Martyrs and Confessors'').

*Dr. Alexander Roman. [http://www.ukrainian-orthodoxy.org/saints/saints_new/list.htm Saints of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church: New Martyrs and Confessors of the Soviet Yoke]. (''List of glorified Ukrainian Orthodox New Martyrs and Confessors'').

Revision as of 15:35, February 11, 2009

Saint Luke (Voino-Yasenetsky) of Simferopol

St Luke (Voino-Yasenetsky) of Simferopol

Saint Luke, Bishop of Simferopol and Crimea, the Blessed Surgeon, was born Valentin Felixovich Voino-Yasenetsky (Валентин Феликсович Войно-Ясенецкий, Βαλεντίν Βόϊνο-Γιασενέτσκι), April 14, 1877 and died June 11, 1961.

Doctor of Medicine, Professor, and State Prize winner, since 1944 he was the Archbishop of Tambov and Michurinsk, and later of Simferopol and the Crimea. While he was serving the church as an Archbishop, he was also practising as a surgeon and taught and published many books and articles on regional anesthesia and surgery. He is now known to be a world-famous pioneering surgeon.

Contents

Life

Living in the Ukraine during the oppressive period of communism, St. Luke stood out among his fellow physicians both as a surgeon and as a Christian. Even the communists coveted his talents for healing the body.

As a physician, he practised in a number of district hospitals in central Russia, serving as head physician in the Tashkent urban hospital and as a professor at Central Asia University. In the early 1920s he took vows and was ordained as a bishop. After his consecration as a Bishop he was arrested and tortured many times and sent into exile for his views and unwillingness to deny his faith in Christ. During his life he published 55 scientific works on surgery and anatomy, winning the state prize in 1946.[1]

He wore his bishop's cassock in the operating room and refused to perform surgery without an icon. Through all of this St. Luke remained faithful to God to the end of his earthly life (+1961). The relics of St. Luke are kept at Ss. Peter & Paul Cathedral, Holy Trinity Convent of the Simferopol and Crimean Diocese. In addition, the Monastery of the Transfiguration of Christ (Sagmata) near the city of Thebes in Greece has portions of St. Luke's relics, and it has become a major pilgrimage of the Saint in Greece. He is beloved by Orthodox Christians throughout the world, and many miracles occur through his intercessions.

The Saints last words

In Russian

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Arm yourselves with the armor that God gives, That you may withstand the devil's tricks.

You can't imagine how evil he is.

We don't have to fight with people but with rulers and powers, in effect the evil spirits.

Take care!

It's no use to the devil for anyone to think and feel

that he is close to him.

A hidden and unknown enemy is more dangerous than a visible enemy.

O how large and terrible is the army of the demons.

How numberless is their black horde!

Unchanged, untiring, day and night, seeking to push all of us who believe

in the name of Christ, to lure us on the road of unbelief, of evil and of impiety.

These unseen enemies of God have made their sole purpose, day and night to seek our destruction.

But do not be afraid, take power from the name of Jesus.”

(Preliminary translation)

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The Troparion of St. Luke Archbishop of Simferopol

Troparion of St. Luke of Simferopol - Tone 1

O herald of the way of salvation, confessor and archpastor of the Crimean flock, faithful keeper of the traditions of the fathers, unshakeable pillar and teacher of Orthodoxy, pray unceasingly to Christ our Saviour to grant salvation and strong faith to Orthodox Christians, O holy hierarch Luke, physician wise in God.

From the 2nd Edition of The Blessed Surgeon, which contains the life and service of St. Luke. [1]